Distance question

[CrimsonEXE 2]

So writing a fanfic and right now I'm trying to figure out the distance between the dragon lands and Ponyville and how long you would take to get there flying at Mach 5 which I believe according to death battles is Rainbow Dash's Max Speed without using the Sonic Rainboom

[abronymouse 5,684]

I get the impression it's across the sea... a bit like flying to Spain from New York

mach 5 is 3836mph

and the distance between New York and Madrid is 3,584.

so, a lil under an hour if you're going hypersonic the whole way

[Otaku-sempai 514]

Well, Equestria seems to be much smaller than North America. I think this is illustrated pretty well in this chart from Dark Horse's The Compendium of Equestria: 

Quote

 

Friendship Express Journey Information (departing from Canterlot)

Destination / Ticket Price (per traveler) / Average Travel Time
Ponyville / 5 bits / 30 minutes
Hollow Shades / 10 bits / 40 minutes
Appleoosa / 15 bits / 1 hour
Fillydelphia / 20 bits / 1 hour
Baltimare / 20 bits / 1 hour 10 minutes
Dodge City / 20 bits / 1 hour 20 minutes
Las Pegasus / 25 bits / 1 hour 30 minutes
Manehatten / 20 bits / 1 hour 30 minutes
Smokey Mountains / 25 bits / 1 hour 40 minutes
Vanhoover / 20 bits / 1 hour 45 minutes
Frozen North / 25 bits / 2 hours 30 minutes
Crystal Empire / 25 bits / 2 hours 45 minutes
Farthest Reaches / 30 bits / 3 hours
Rainbow Falls / 30 bits / 3 hours 15 minutes
Griffonstone Station* / 40 bits / 4 hours

* Customer Notice: Due to infrastructural restraints, Griffonstone Station is not in Griffonstone itself.
Customers traveling to Griffonstone should be prepared for a 3-4 hour hike preceding arrival at their
final destination. Thank you. 

 

I do think that the travel times above are a bit too short, but they give you a rough idea of relative distances. Rainbow, at speed, is going to be able to travel a lot faster! The Dragon Lands (a.k.a. Dragon's Lair or the Dragon Isles) are on the other side of the Celestial Sea, south of Griffonstone, just a bit farther from Ponyville as is the homeland of the Griffons. There is no train service to the Dragon Lands. 

Real-world compared to Equestria:

- Steam locomotive from New York City to Seattle: 42 hours; 2851.5 miles. 

- Manehattan to Vanhoover (through Canterlot): 3 hours, 15 minutes (not counting stopover); estimated at 220 miles. North America is about 13 times larger than Equestria!

At Mach 5, Rainbow Dash should be able to travel from Manehatten to Vanhoover in about one-quarter of an hour (though that seems too fast to me). That's roughly the same distance between Ponyville and Dragon's Lair. If you want to top out Rainbow's speed at Mach1, that is 767.269 miles per hour (the sound barrier). At that speed, she could fly to the Dragon Lands in a little under an hour, which seems a bit more realistic to me. 

Edited 19 hours ago by Otaku-sempai